SWG: Gordon Walton - He Discusses His Part in the NGE

Temploiter replied the topic: SWG: Gordon Walton - He Discusses His Part in the NGE

I agree with you guys, even if SWG had been perfected in the months following release (or better yet had been given time to be developed properly and released near-perfect with JTL included) it still would not have beaten WoW. Because... WoW.

I also agree that there should have been a 2-Jedi limit with permadeath, OR no playable Jedi. I know that sounds insane for a Star Wars game, but it's an MMO. How can you have an alpha class without people chasing after it (wrecking the sandbox in the process) even if there are only 2 and they have permadeath (which would be a fallback position I could accept).

I hated player Jedi with a passion and went bounty hunter because of it. But it became politically impossible to hunt them (and practically impossible once fight-clubbing started). Guilds would forbid you from hunting allied guilds' Jedi. Jedi became increasingly faction-safe, which seemed dumb to me.

Kazara replied the topic: SWG: Gordon Walton - He Discusses His Part in the NGE

Temploiter wrote: If it had been designed like NGE in the first place? Classes and Levels? I wouldn't have been into it.

Exactly. What I read about the original SWG is exactly why I decided to leave AC2 (that had just implemented its own "NGE") and join SWG at launch. It represented endless possibilities to me. The non-combatant content that was also offered was amazing, and that kind of content in new age MMO's is usually a bland secondary system, an after thought (for the cash shop $$$) or just not included, As flawed as SWG was at launch, I was totally immersed in the SWG world. NOTHING has come close to those Pre-CU days. It has been 9 1/2 years since the NGE went live....and I still miss the community (Intrepid server) that I was once part of.

I have enjoyed other MMO's, but none has offered me the type of community that encouraged me to stay even after reaching max level (if I even made it that far). I never had interest in Raiding or dailies. The player economies and crafting were pathetic for the most part, and the addition of cash shops made them far worse.

And the Deep State whispered to Trump “You can’t withstand the storm,” to which Trump whispered back, “I am the storm.”

Kazara replied the topic: SWG: Gordon Walton - He Discusses His Part in the NGE

I also remember how SWH was not advertised. Smedley thought the name Star Wars was all that was needed to bring in 500k+ players. I believe the CU was delivered around the launch of the Rage of the Wookies expansion, but the CU chased off many more players than the expansion brought in. The CU was not as a dramatic change as the NGE, but it did kill the pharmaceutical professions, and made it much harder, if not impossible to mix and match skill sets to attain max level. Many players woke up to find seriously nerfed combatant toons. Some players returned and warmed up to the CU, but it is still hard to imagine the NGE was already being covertly developed. The response to the CU should have given those arrogant, greedy a$$hats pause, but WoW $$$$ was all they could see.

Now that the NGE plan was in effect at the time the CU rolled out, how in hell did Smedley allow the development of ToOW to continue?!? Between the mass exodus and expansion refunds, the financial losses must have been significant.

And the Deep State whispered to Trump “You can’t withstand the storm,” to which Trump whispered back, “I am the storm.”

Shayde replied the topic: SWG: Gordon Walton - He Discusses His Part in the NGE

The real reason the CU failed to fix anything was combat mitigation.

If you're not familiar with the term, most MMOs use this to make different level MOBs more dangerous for lower level characters, it looked at the respective levels of you and the MOB and adjusted damage up/down accordingly.

Since SWG never had a level classification for professions, a system had to be grafted on top to classify not only every MOB, but your own abilities based on your skills mastered. That's why everyone's levels were screwed up post CU. If you had half of say Pistoleer, it didn't count much. It totally decimated mixing skill trees, because the only way to get the max level was to master 2 combat professions.

WHICH SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED. And was the antithesis of SWG's creation in the first place. Combat was available to anyone, and a weapon did the same base damage no matter the boxes in your tree. Specials enhanced damage, sure... but base damage was damage. If you were a master dancer/musician and shot a Krayt, it did the damage. Post CU, if you weren't max level it did nothing.

So post CU, if you literally didn't fit a specific mold, and choose to devote 2 masterys worth of points to combat, you were totally sidelined from most combat.

Kazara replied the topic: SWG: Gordon Walton - He Discusses His Part in the NGE

Exactly. You had to have two combat professions mastered (or was it 2 1/2?). No longer could a player that mastered a non-combatant profession and a single combat profession be effective in combat.

Hubby had a marvelous pharmaceutical business going, which took a long time to build. The CU did away with all of that, replacing heals and buffs with magic.

There was also a big changes to armor in regards to types and levels. Didn't smugglers have to rely on loot drops to slice weapons for specific stats? As I recall, the devs who brought us the CU didn't prepare for the negative impact on crafted goods, like food & weapons. It was amazing that SWG didn't lose more players than it did - - but $OE took care of that seven months later.

And the Deep State whispered to Trump “You can’t withstand the storm,” to which Trump whispered back, “I am the storm.”